September 8, 2018 Crossing Nevada

One thing we noticed about our drive across Nevada on I-80 was the prevalence of mining, and geothermal leaks.  We saw one plant that appeared to be capturing the geothermal energy.  No idea what is being mined (some kind of mineral?), but in some places whole mountainsides were being scraped off.

We also noticed that most of the towns that are anywhere near mountains have labeled a nearby mountain with the town initial.  A HUGE initial, visible for a long way.

Geothermal leaks.

Lovelock, Nevada

Mining.

Winnemucca, Nevada

Geothermal leaks.

Mining.

Mining.

September 5, 2013 Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park

The Malakoff Diggins were amazing.  In the 1850's miners decided to use water-power to wash the sides of the hills into huge sluices; drain and strain until they had the gold; and flush the remainder downstream.  It must have been much more efficient than the old sluice box method, but oh my, what total destruction!  Our pictures really don't do justice to the sheer scope of this operation.  And the Malakoff was not the only outfit out there doing hydraulic mining.  The end result was that the streams and rivers were so clogged with mud and debris (all the way down to Sacramento) a law was passed outlawing the hydraulic method.  The site we visited included the old town of North Bloomfield, which was once a bustling community.  We wish we could have spent more time there, but as always, we had to be someplace else....  Please go to the link I provided and read more about the hydraulic mining, it's quite interesting!

This is called a monitor and it was used like a firehose to wash away the side of a mountain.

Old bldg. in North Bloomfield.

Can you guess what this is/was?

The Catholic church.

Another old one.

We walked down in one of many huge pits created by hydraulic mining.

How big was it, Jimmy?

Called the Hiller Tunnel.

Hiller Tunnel; taken with the flash.
Very dark in there, and water is trickling out.

Bubba and the Hiller Tunnel.

August 31, 2013 Empire Mine State Park, Grass Valley, Nevada

Toured the Empire Mine State Park today, and it was fascinating.  It was a huge operation and the mine was vast.  We could have spend days touring this place, but alas we got a late start and it was too hot....

Beautiful old building, huh!
This is the front - the back of this building is all dusty and dirty and faces the mining operation.

The mine closed in 1957 and it appears that they just walked away.
The mine is now filled with water within 150 ft. of the surface.

One of the offices - the round object is a safe.
There were lots of safes, big and small.  Remember, this was gold being mined!

The Secret Room contained a scale model of the entire mine, made out of colored wires.

This is the cable tram that brought out the ore, and also took the miners down and up.

This doesn't show the angle of descent, but it was steep and very dark! 

The miners rode a manskip going in and out of the mine.
As part of the "experience" this thing shook as the lights went out.  Yeow!

These things must have made a huge noise....!